Millions of Americans a year suffer from chronic anxiety and various forms of hypervigilance. This is typically the result of previously experienced unprocessed emotional traumas leading to chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Whenever we experience overwhelming emotions in the face of aloneness or helplessness, the brain will dissociate or block this energy from reaching the upper brain to protect itself from cellular damage.
This energy and information is then stored in the lower, right area of the brain and in the body on a cellular level in what is referred to as implicit memory. Conscious, or explicit, memory is comprised of things such as images, words, numbers, and other forms of data that is then consciously recalled when needed. This type of memory is stored in a part of the brain known as the hippocampus. Moreover, when you recall explicit memory you are aware of doing so as you reflect or share it with others.
Implicit Memory and The Amygdala
Implicit memory is stored in another part of the brain called the amygdala. This is the brain’s threat detector. The amygdala is scanning our environment for threat and if it perceives something as a danger on any level it will trigger stress or survival responses, such as fight, flight, or freeze states. The amygdala also tags and stores anything emotionally significant in implicit memory networks.
Implicit memory will activate or be triggered by the amygdala in response to any association no matter whether one is conscious of the trigger or not. It will then be experienced as a felt (body) memory with no images, conscious thought, or sense of time. Even if the event occurred decades ago, it feels as if it is happening in the present moment. In my experience as a practicing psychotherapist, the chronic anxiety and hypervigilance experienced by my clients stems primarily from emotional energy, or parts of self, that were dissociated neurologically to protect the brain and allow the rest of the person to keep functioning.
The Origin of Hypervigilance
Another part of a person’s personality was then developed in an effort to prevent this painful experience from occurring in the future. Here are a few examples to put this concept into day-to-day life. A child is born into the home of an abusive or rage filled parent. They become very adept at tracking the parent’s mood and behavior for any indicator they are going to become explosive or abusive. Another individual is married to a spouse with a drug or alcohol addiction. They are constantly on edge awaiting the next relapse and the resulting chaos. Lastly, a person is in the military overseas and contends with opposing foes conspiring to kill and defeat them and their comrades.
Even though the child grew into an adult and is now in a safe environment, or the spouse is now sober, or the veteran has returned home, their once adaptive hypervigilance cannot be terminated no matter how much distress it is currently causing. This is due to the fact that the wounded parts of them remain in their implicit memory networks within the time period they were emotionally burdened. The protective parts of their personality were generated to defend against these parts becoming activated in the body and flooding the person with overwhelming pain and energy, as well as to keep a similar emotional injury from transpiring in the future. These defensive mechanisms have to remain in place until the energy held by the wounded part is processed and released from the nervous system.
The Brain’s Negativity Bias
Neuroscience shows us these protective hypervigilant parts are largely stored and activated by the amygdala. The amygdala is constantly scanning the environment for any associations to the painful experiences from these prior events or time periods. This then creates a feedback loop where anxiety leads to increased hypervigilance for threats, a greater level of threat detection then leads to increased anxiety, which leads to increased hypervigilance, and so on and so on.
Another factor that contributes to chronic hypervigilance is how the amygdala filters sensory data. We are bombarded with a massive amount of sensory data that is too much for the conscious mind to take in; there are approximately 11 million bits of information a second coming at us. The conscious mind can take in a maximum of around 126 bits of information a second. Furthermore, researchers at the University of California at Berkeley discovered the amygdala notices 9 negative bits to every 1 positive one.
Further evidence the brain has a negativity bias. So with your brain focused on survival and working against having a peaceful, calm mind, how do we tip the scale towards positivity when we’re battling a brain primarily focused on survival and an amygdala that observes 9 negative items to every 1 positive? Let’s begin with your inner dialogue. According to high performance psychologist, Michael Gervais, “There are only two kind of thoughts: those that contract and those that expand.” Positive thoughts expand and negative thoughts contract. Take some time and notice how each type of thought affects your body. Positive thoughts usually make a person more erect and cause outward motion. Negative thoughts tend to constrict the body and move a person’s energy inward.
When Positive Thinking Falls Short
However, for the most part, attempting positive thinking and affirmations is a dead end. The problem arises when we attempt to ignore the negative or make declarations our brain knows are patently untrue, such as, “I’ll be a billionaire in a year,” or, “I have infinite value and worth,” when you do not believe it. You cannot trick your own brain; it knows how you truly feel and what you really think. Your thoughts need to be realistic. If I’m working with a father who has been abusing drugs for the last year and abandoned his young son, he cannot assert, “I’m a good dad.” But he could confirm, “I can be a good father,” and back it up with actions that make it more and more believable.
In addition to the toll hypervigilance takes on mental and physical health, it is actually highly ineffective. When we are in a stress response, our visual field narrows to focus on the perceived threat and our prefrontal cortex lowers in activity to give way to more instinctual parts of the brain. In addition, blood sugar, oxygen and other resources are diverted from the more evolved parts of the brain to the more primitive regions to engage in fight or flight responses. This results in lowered levels of creativity and problem solving, as well as deficits in our ability to fully notice our surroundings.
Mindful Awareness vs. Hypervigilance
Not only will we experience impairment in our ability to respond with a full range of options, but we will miss much of what is actually occurring around us due to begin so future focused on feared outcomes. In his book, The Warrior’s Meditation, Richard Haight talks about living in Japan and training with a sensei in traditional samurai warrior arts. He discusses how an elite samurai warrior when surrounded by a group of adversaries would remain in a calm, parasympathetic state in order to sense everything around him. He would only respond when actually attacked using his energy resources efficiently. Hypervigilance drains you energetically leaving you with less internal resources to respond to a threat when needed.
The benefits of achieving a positively biased brain are profound. University of North Carolina professor, Barbara Fredrickson’s research identified what she refers to as, “The Positivity Ratio.” Here research shows that to fully access positive emotions and the adaptive actions they unlock requires three positive thoughts to every one negative thought. Once this ratio is achieved, you have full access to your expansive energy psychologist, Michael Gervais referred to.
Creating Neuroplasticity Through Gratitude
But how is one supposed to achieve this goal with an amygdala focusing on predominately negative items in the environment. The key is gratitude. Now I know this may be a bit of a letdown for you. “Yes”. “I have attempted a gratitude practice and agree with it in principle but have never been able to sustain it or benefit from it to any significant degree,” you may retort. I get it. Truth be told, I have never been able to keep up with a gratitude list or traditional recommendations regarding gratitude. But what I am going to now explain to you is different, is based in neuroscience, and hopefully be more motivating to you.
One of the goals I have in everything I write about, shoot videos on, or utilize different therapeutic modalities is to assist my client in creating neuroplasticity, the brain and nervous systems ability to change itself. Without neuroplasticity no true transformation occurs. This is the primary reason you have not attained meaningful results in your prior therapies or coaching. It was all information and cognitive strategies most likely. The same is true of most gratitude practices. For this to generate real impact, you have to feel it.
In his peer-reviewed paper, The Neural Correlates of Gratitude, neuroscientist, Antonio Dimassio lays out the neuroscience behind gratitude. A gratitude practice that includes a felt sense in the body can alter the brain’s negativity bias and cause the amygdala to begin to notice more positive aspects of our environment. Moreover, it has the potential to activate the ventral pathway of the vagal nerve, which is the nerve triggering our secure attachment network, and lower activity in the sympathetic nervous system that drives hypervigilance.
How to Supercharge Your Gratitude Practice
In addition, it can trigger release of oxytocin, the bonding or love hormone, and endorphins. Each of these neurochemicals are associated with secure attachment. They also generate a sense of feeling loved and safe downregulating the fear response. I will now provide instructions for how to structure a gratitude practice that can achieve this goal.
Practice: Write down 5-10 things you are grateful for. If this seems to much, start with a number that feels attainable to you, such as 3. Then focus on one item at a time and notice where you feel it in your body. Sit with the feeling for a minute or two and then repeat with each item. Neuroplasticity in a therapeutic context is primarily achieved through tracking a felt sense in the body with focused attention. Now after a few days, you may feel as if you are running out of things to be grateful for.
How many times can I use my spouse, kids, dog, or some event. My suggestion is to use moments. When doing this practice myself this morning, there were two moments with my youngest son and another with my wife I used that occurred earlier in the day. You are never going to run out of moments; they keep happening daily. Personally, this keeps the application from becoming contrived or too rote and boring. Research has shown engaging in this practice for as little as three weeks can begin rewiring the brain’s negativity bias.
Gratitude and Flow
There is another benefit to life satisfaction and peak performance from practicing gratitude. University of Southern California neuroscientist, Glenn Fox’s research has shown a link between gratitude and flow states. A flow state is a powerful altered state of consciousness that unlocks our full potential performance wise, relationally, spiritually, and creatively. Much of the research on flow was developed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, otherwise known as the ’Godfather of Flow’.
Dr. Csikszentmihalyi was researching the variables contributing to human happiness. However, as he interviewed individuals for his study he began to discover those rating highest in happiness kept describing these positive experiences where time dilated, they experienced a sense of connection and oneness with others and their surroundings, and performance came effortlessly. The participants consistently used the word flow in their descriptions of how whatever they were engaged in came naturally and easily, whether it was a task or performance or a personal interaction.
Playing to Win vs. Playing Not to Lose
In a flow state, the parts of the brain associated with fear of judgment from others or failure diminish or cease in activity allowing the person to fully engage in the activity, generate new ideas or behavioral responses, and access their full potential. It is also a pleasurable experience with release of some of our most intrinsically rewarding neurochemicals: dopamine and noradrenaline (the chemicals released by cocaine), endorphins (the body’s natural opiates), anandamide (endogenous cannabis), and serotonin (triggered by MDMA) that produce a calming effect and feelings of well-being.
So in addition to elevating our potential, it is a distinctively pleasurable experience. A flow state is the polar oppositive of a hypervigilance. When hypervigilant, a person is primarily driven by what is referred to as avoidant goals – things you don’t want to happen. A flow state is characterized by approach goals: increased performance, deeper connection, or greater purpose and meaning. As a result of hypervigilance caused by emotional trauma, you are playing not to lose, rather than playing to win. The result of this is a tremendous amount of loss of what life could be, which leads to more distressing emotional states and a decreased level of happiness.
When You Need More
It is my hope this article has given you some initial resources for how to break free from hypervigilance resulting from painful emotional wounds you may still be carrying. The strategies laid out have the capacity to create neuroplasticity leading to positive brain changes. There are degrees of severity when it comes to this topic. If you are holding significant traumas in the body you may need professional assistance from a trauma therapist to clear them from your nervous system. If you find the methods in this article difficult to implement, don’t be discouraged. You are capable. Sometimes a part of a person’s personality structure will not feel safe to let go of the hypervigilance.
Again, this is where you will need outside assistance to work through this block. But you definitely can succeed. As I inform some of my newer clients when they become discouraged at times by these obstacles that my clients and I are undefeated. If you would like more information or resources related to this topic or believe you would benefit from professional assistance, please contact us anytime at hawkinscounselingcenter.com
